Monday, 17 August 2015

Iniesta: Pique red card made sextuple impossible

The midfielder pointed towards the moment at which Barcelona went down to 10 men against Athletic Bilbao as when they gave up on the Supercopa.

Andres Iniesta believes Gerard Pique's red card was the point at which Barcelona realised their sextuple dream was over as they lost the Supercopa de Espana to Athletic Bilbao.

Luis Enrique's men went into Monday's match knowing they needed to turnaround a 4-0 deficit from Friday's first leg at San Mames, when an Aritz Aduriz hat-trick left their hopes of a fifth trophy in 2015 looking unlikely.

Iniesta had proclaimed before the match that Barca had every confidence they could complete a shock comeback at Camp Nou and Lionel Messi's first-half goal kept the European champions' dream alive.

However, the odds were stacked against the hosts when Pique was sent off for dissent in the 56th minute and Aduriz scored his fourth goal of the two-legged Supercopa to secure a 1-1 draw on the night and a 5-1 win on aggregate.

"It was over two games, so it was difficult to come back but not impossible," Iniesta told reporters after the match. "We tried everything but the expulsion of Pique made everything even more complicated.

"These refereeing decisions happen. We don't know what was said. Today we were infinitely better but it wasn't just one match."

The Barca midfielder, 31, does not think the clash between the Liga winners and Copa del Rey finalists casts a shadow over 2015-16 for a side which swept all before them in the latter half of last season.

"I am convinced this will be a great campaign," he added. "We must not get things confused - we'll go for the Club World Cup, our fifth title of the year, but for now we'll focus on La Liga which restarts for us on Sunday."

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